Assessment in schools Fit for purpose? - Teaching and Learning ...

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To many policy-makers, it seems attractive, simple and cost-effective to use data from single assessments for multiple purposes – a “no brainer” from a policy perspective. Indeed, David Bell, permanent secretary at the Department for Children, Schools and Families, told MPs in 2008: “While I hear the argument that is often put about multiple purposes of testing and assessment, I do not think that it is problematic to expect tests and assessments to do different things” 7 . However, even where a single set of assessment data is technically fit to be used for multiple purposes – which is certainly not always true – the purposes may still clash in terms of impact and consequences. As argued above, using assessment data for institutional monitoring can have a negative impact upon the quality of education in that institution, which clashes with the most fundamental of uses of assessment data in improving pupils’ learning. Clarity about the legitimate and illegitimate uses of assessment data, and the intended or unintended consequences of those uses, is crucial. For the purposes of further discussion, this commentary simplifies current uses of assessment by clustering them in three broad categories. 1 The use of assessment to help build pupils’ understanding, within day-to-day lessons. 2 The use of assessment to provide information on pupils’ achievements to those on the outside of the pupilteacher relationship: to parents (on the basis of in-class judgments by teachers, and test and examination results), and to further and higher education institutions and employers (through test and examination results). 3 The use of assessment data to hold individuals and institutions to account, including through the publication of results which encourage outsiders to make a judgment on the quality of those being held to account. Another important way to understand the different uses and impacts of assessment is to see the assessment system as a structure which both provides information and influences what people do. The latter should not be overlooked, as publishing information, which has consequences attached for those who come out well or badly on the basis of these data, will influence teaching, although not necessarily positively. Governments have sometimes claimed that national tests “drive up standards”. Test scores in England have increased significantly since 1995 although the increase has slowed down considerably over recent years. There has been controversy about the extent to which such change reflects only the development of skill by teachers in “teaching to the test”. A pertinent example of the issue is provided by research, from Michael Shayer and colleagues, which has shown that pupils’ performance on tests of science reasoning has actually declined between 1976 and 2006/7. The substantive part of this commentary is intended to raise questions about the extent to which assessment systems in the UK are capable of satisfying all the demands that are placed upon them. Sources: Newton, P. (2010, in press) Educational Assessment – Concepts and Issues: The Multiple Purposes of Assessment. In E. Baker, B. McGaw, & P. Peterson, (Eds.) International Encyclopedia of Education. Third Edition. Oxford: Elsevier. Shayer, M. & Ginsburg, D. (2009, in press) Thirty years on - a large anti-Flynn effect? (11): 13- and 14-year-olds. Piagetian tests of formal operations, norms 1976-2006/7. British Journal of Educational Psychology. Available for free down-load from the British Psychological Society at: http://bpsoc.publisher.ingentaconnect. com/content/bpsoc/bjep/pre-prints/313152;jsessionid=as6c4e0rbt676.alice Stobart, G. (2008) Testing Times: the uses and abuses of assessment. Abingdon: Routledge. 7 David Bell, evidence to the House of Commons Children, Schools and Families committee, 28/01/08
Quality Introduction Assessment in schools. Fit for purpose? In this section, we map what to look for in an effective system of assessment. In doing so, we divide the discussion into three parts, each of which corresponds to one of our three broad categories of uses of assessment. One technical note, before we start, is to explain a distinction routinely made by experts in this field: the characterisation of assessment as either formative or summative. Formative is the use of day-to-day, often informal, assessments to explore pupils’ understanding so that the teacher can best decide how to help them to develop that understanding. Summative is the more formal summing-up of a pupil’s progress that can then be used for purposes ranging from providing information to parents to certification as part of a formal examination course. It should be noted that assessments can often be used for both formative and summative purposes. “Formative” and “summative” are not labels for different types or forms of assessment but describe how assessments are used. For example a task or activity is not formative unless the information it provides is actually used to take learning forward. The distinction is undoubtedly useful in helping to understand the different uses of assessment, and so we use it in this section. Quality in formative assessment/assessment for learning What a pupil does or says will be observed and interpreted by the teacher, or other learners, who build on that response to develop a dialogue aimed at helping learners to take their next steps. This is formative assessment, which contrasts with summative assessment. There are characteristic differences between the two uses of assessment: • Summative comes at the end of learning episodes, whereas formative is built in to the learning process; • Summative aims to assess knowledge and understanding at a given point in time, whereas formative aims to develop it; • Summative is static and one-way (usually the teacher or examiner judges the pupil), whereas formative is on-going and dynamic (feedback can be given both to the pupil and the teacher); • Summative follows a set of pre-defined questions, whereas formative follows the flow of spontaneous dialogue and interaction, where one action builds on (is contingent upon) an earlier one. The key difference is expressed in the first bullet point above: formative assessment is a central part of pedagogy. This explains why many teachers find it hard to implement; it may challenge them to change what they do, how they think about learning and teaching, and the way in which they relate to their pupils. For example, questions or tasks used in class should be chosen and fashioned in the light of their potential to engage pupils in making contributions that can reveal key strengths and weaknesses in their understanding. What is revealed is often surprising and unexpected. 9
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